Podcasts

Does Your Sales Force Have Business Acumen?

Take seven minutes out of your day and listen to this introductory podcast on the five critical business acumen skills your salespeople need. You will learn how salespeople can quickly differentiate themselves from their competitors by acquiring business acumen skills to better understand how their clients’ businesses operate.

In this first introductory podcast, Andy Smith, vice president of Paradigm Learning, will provide an overview of critical business acumen skills for sales teams. Then listen to the entire series of podcasts, below, to learn more about each of these critical skills:

Skill #1 - Gaining access to senior executives and have meaningful, insightful conversations.

Skill #2 - Getting past being an approved vendor and become a trusted adviser.

Skill #3 - Aligning with your customers’ strategic issues while growing the size of every opportunity.

Skill #4 - Creating a sense of urgency with customers to avoid the “no-decision” decision.

Skill #5 - Creating greater customer loyalty by quantifying the value added.

This is the first in a series of podcasts on business acumen for your salespeople. This podcast discusses the importance of the salesperson's ability to gain access to senior executives and have meaningful, insightful conversations.  Andy Smith, vice president of Paradigm Learning, will discuss:

This is the second in a series of podcasts.  Part 2 of this series outlines how the salesperson can get past being an approved vendor and become a trusted adviser. Andy Smith, vice president of Paradigm Learning will answer the following questions:

This is the third in the series of podcasts on business acumen for salespeople. The podcast outlines how to demonstrate alignment with your customers’ strategic issues while growing the size of the sales opportunity. Andy Smith, vice president of Paradigm Learning will dicuss:

In this fourth podcast in the series of podcasts on business acumen for salespeople, Andy Smith, vice president of Paradigm Learning will discuss:

This is the last in the series of podcasts on business acumen for salespeople. The podcast outlines how the salesperson can create greater customer loyalty by quantifying the value add of their products and services. Andy Smith, vice president of Paradigm Learning will discuss:

 

Successful sales professionals don’t just sell—they possess a deep understanding of their clients’ financial and strategic issues. These professionals speak confidently about how their products or services affect success. They are not only sales professionals, but business professionals as well.  They understand the financial language and business acumen of their company and clients.

 

This 10 minute podcast discusses how International Paper uses a business simulation to build the business acumen of its salesforce.  The simulation is part of the company’s Customer Value Management process, which recently won a Stevie® Awards for Best Sales Training Program.

 

To read more about International Paper's success, click here to download a copy of the story, “International Paper: Winning Business by Understanding Business ─ Taking the Mystery out of Finance for Sales Professionals.”